Lord Harland.

Chapter 231 Ancient Ruins
On the night of February [-]th, there will be a grand square dance.

February [-]th was the day when the first batch of slaves came to Harland's territory. At that time, this area was still a virgin forest, and there was no one there.

It was these slaves who built Fort William with their industrious hands and ushered in a better life.In addition to thanking Richard for changing their destiny, the first generation of contract slaves gathered almost spontaneously on February [-]th to celebrate their new life.

This day, February [-]th, was also named New Life Day by the free folk of Fort William.

Richard also asked the Fort William City Hall to designate Freshman's Day as a statutory holiday, so that people can relax with a day off.

Through reports one by one, Li Cha knew that the biggest cash income of Harland Territory this year turned into wool spinning and ready-made clothing business. With wool spinning, the Territory earned [-] gold coins.

Of course, the output value of agricultural planting is the largest, but this year, 6000 people have poured into Harland's territory. These contract slaves came to the territory and ate up all the food accumulated this year.

Since this year, wool weaving has spread in northern Xinjiang, although the original looms cannot compete with the new looms in the Harland Territory because of the production efficiency.

Ranked second is steel products, and the annual profit of steel products is [-] gold coins.

The income of steel has been very stable. Even if the price is gradually reduced, the income is still increasing.

The third-ranked territorial taxation, this year's various taxes add up to [-] gold coins.

Last year's top-ranked income from hunting monsters was reduced a lot due to the war. This year, the income was only [-] gold coins.

Ranked fourth is the liquor business, which earned [-] gold coins in profit in one year.

Brown sugar, coal, and hemostatic ointment are all around [-] gold coins, and the total income is [-] gold coins.

In addition, honey, glass, masonry, flame spider silk, cement, alloy parts, carriage manufacturing, plus the income from running a carriage and horse business for transportation, there is a total profit of 1 gold coins.

Last year, Harland's territory's cash income exceeded 1 gold coins.However, due to the outbreak of war, the pressure on the military expenditure of the territory was also very heavy, and more than [-] tons of grain were sold to pay off.

With the completion of the expansion of the reconnaissance brigade, the territory of Harland already has four infantry brigades, two cavalry brigades, plus the headquarters staff, the total strength exceeds 5000.

In addition, the territory also has reserve auxiliary soldiers. The number of auxiliary soldiers is not large. Each castle has a squadron of auxiliary soldiers, and the number of personnel is not fixed.There are now eight squadrons, with a total of 500 men.

The cost of raising the auxiliary soldiers is very low, only two months of training each year, even if Richard increased the annual subsidy for the auxiliary soldiers, the training fee increased to six silver coins, catching up with the average salary.The annual cost of raising [-] auxiliary soldiers does not exceed [-] gold coins.

But with [-] regular troops, even if the cost of raising the army is not as high as that of the main army, it will consume [-] gold coins a year.

Soldiers in the Harland Territory, as long as they make military exploits and become free citizens, will receive a salary of eight silver coins per month, and the salary of a professional officer is roughly equivalent to two-thirds of that of an officer of the main army.

On average, a veteran's annual salary is eight gold coins, and contract slave recruits have no salary yet, so Richard does not need to pay for it.

There are more than 4000 veterans in the territory, and their salaries are as high as [-] gold coins.

In addition, the salaries of hundreds of officers added up to more than [-] gold coins.

In addition to soldiers' salaries, raising an army also requires input in materials

Fortunately, food, meat, clothes, weapons and equipment, nutritional supplies, etc., the cash that really needs to be provided, including the purchase of wildebeest and other messy expenses, [-] gold coins are enough.

The salary of the low-level bureaucrats in the territory is the same as that of the soldiers, but there are only more than 500 people. Including the investment in medical care and education, they only consume [-] gold coins.

This year's finances have a balance of more than 9000 gold coins in cash.

Li Cha's treasury has always been relatively empty, and every time he has a surplus of gold coins, he will immediately spend them to purchase the population to increase the territory and develop it.

But as a lord, breaking the capital chain is a dangerous thing.This sum of money Li Cha plans to put in the treasury as a reserve fund.

The goddess's birthday is approaching, and Li Cha brought his family to Heihe Castle to celebrate the goddess's birthday together.

This year's Goddess's Birthday, third uncle Bernie specially asked for leave and returned to Heihe Castle.

After the Goddess's Birthday, and entering the Dawn Calendar 3262, William's age is nearly sixty.

In the past seven years, although William has made a lot of contributions to the Harland family's management of the territory.But he also accumulated three great achievements. After the end of the war last year, William exchanged for the eighth-level professional breathing method, which was successfully advanced in winter.

At the age of 56, he was promoted to an eighth-level professional, and William was already an extremely talented person.

Generally speaking, when a professional reaches the age of 60, his physical function begins to decline, and the difficulty of advancing will increase a lot.Even a talented person like William can maintain his best condition until he is 70 years old.

If you can't advance to legend at the age of 70, it's even more impossible to succeed if your physical condition declines.

According to the speed of William's advancement, coupled with the difficulty of being promoted to a legend, it is very difficult.

William is the most talented person in the previous generation of the Harland family, even he is the same, and the third uncle Bernie is even less likely to be promoted to the legend.

On the contrary, the next generation of the Harland family, Richard, Sophia, and Wendy have greater potential and are younger, and have the opportunity to break through the legendary bottleneck.

After the Goddess's birthday, Li Cha had just returned to Fort William when the soldiers who developed the swamp basin rushed to the lord's mansion and reported an unexpected situation to Li Cha.

In the swamp basin, a lizardman was discovered.Hearing this news, Li Cha was shocked.

According to the treatment that Li Cha learned, lizardmen like hot and humid environments, and they generally live in the southern jungles.

Lizardmen are widely distributed in the Dawn Plane. There are not only lizardmen in the south of the Central Continent, but also in the Eastern Continent where the elves live, the Western Continent where the dwarves live, and the hot and humid jungle.

It is said that the lizardmen are all alien species, following a lizardman god to invade the plane of dawn.

In the end, the lizardman gods were hunted down by the ancient wizards, and even the godheads became the wizards' collections.

The wizard captured a large number of lizardmen for experiments, and even hybridized the creatures from the Dawn Continent with the lizardmen, creating many messy species.

According to the records in the data, lizard people live in the swamps and jungles in the south, and the discovery of lizard people in the northern border area is not a small news.

But the soldiers in Harland's territory couldn't be deceiving, especially the soldiers in charge of scouting. They were basically veterans, and the backbone force was the elite cavalry riding on Warcraft horses.

The elite monster cavalry has not made any mistakes in the investigation and intelligence.

Hearing this news, Li Cha took the Magical Beast Cavalry Brigade, Scout Cavalry Brigade, First Brigade, Harland Mage Association and other backbone forces to station near the Mage Tower in the swamp basin.

After obtaining the fiefdom of the swamp basin, Richard spent a sum of gold coins on the construction of the mage tower.

From last fall to now, the mage's tower has been raised by two floors.

Wendy took the magic apprentice and used the spell of turning mud into stone to build the mage tower into an integrated building, and set some magic traps inside the mage tower.

This mage tower has a legendary magic core as energy source, and a magic circle is arranged to gather magic power. Inside the magic tower, a small artificial magic well is built.

The magician of the tower of death has already built half of the mage tower.

The core mage tower energy room has been constructed.

Richard only needs to spend less than half of the funds to modify some runes that gather magic power to obtain a complete mage tower.

Richard is going to build a seven-story space on the surface.

The first floor is the offices of the Harland Mages Association.The second floor is the magic conference room.Install the portal on the third floor.The fourth floor is the magic plant plantation.The fifth floor is the private magic laboratory of Richard, Sophia, and Wendy.The sixth floor is the bedrooms of Richard, Sophia, Wendy and other high-level officials.

A defensive magic circle is arranged on the seventh floor.

Li Cha is going to set up a large-scale attack magic circle that releases a chain of lightning. The energy channel of the magic circle is directly connected to the energy room.

Normally, the magic power of the magic tower is restricted.

At a critical moment, use the magic energy stored in the legendary magic core to release a powerful magic chain lightning, plus the bonus of the lightning staff, the power can be compared with the legendary magic.

The underground floors are used as energy rooms, warehouses, public magic laboratories, magic libraries, and magic practice grounds.

To build the magic tower, the only trouble now is the portal.

Back then, Li Cha exchanged a batch of magical knowledge with the Church of Dawn in the words of wizards, and there were methods for building space altars and portals.

But to build these magical buildings, precious materials are needed, and such precious materials must contain space attributes.For example, the dragon crystal of the space-time dragon, the stomach bag of the ancient giant lizard, the magic crystal with space attributes, etc.

Now Harland Territory does not have this kind of material with space attributes, so it is not possible to build space altars and portals.

A magic tower without a portal can only be regarded as a semi-finished product.

The area of ​​the swamp basin is only more than 300 square kilometers. Richard sent people to search through the net continuously, and soon discovered the clue. It turned out that these lizardmen were hidden in a ruin.

This ruin is less than ten kilometers away from the Mage Tower.

After arriving near the ruins, Li Cha and others carefully surveyed the ruins, and found that the coordinates of the ruins corresponded to a special astrology.

Li Cha had carefully studied the book of astrology, and when he saw this scene, his expression became a little dignified.Because Li Cha discovered that this ruins turned out to be a city ruins, and in the center of the ruins, there was actually a huge energy supply center. Such a huge energy supply device can only be used by the legendary floating city.

Now there is no floating city in the plane of morning light, and the floating city is a product of ancient wizard civilization.

After the Church of the Seven Gods defeated the ancient wizards, the gods fell into a deep sleep, and all the floating cities crashed. Some legendary wizards who survived by chance left the Dawn Plane with the last few interstellar magic spaceships, and the magic civilization fell into a serious decline.

In the last 3000 years, although many relics from the age of wizards and the age of the Seven Gods have been unearthed, and the level of magic civilization has improved, there is still no comparison with the knowledge of magic mastered by ancient wizards.

Sophia and Wendy also read the book of astrology, and soon discovered the abnormality.The two looked at each other, walked to Li Cha's side and said quietly: "It looks like a building left by an astromagician, but it doesn't look like a magic tower, but rather resembles the legendary floating city."

"It's indeed a fallen floating city ruins, but it's not safe inside. The danger should not only come from the lizardmen."

Li Cha awakened his talent for danger perception, and when he came to the ruins of the Floating Void City, he immediately had a warning of danger in his heart.

The internal area of ​​the floating city is generally divided into a comprehensive defense area, an energy core area, a comprehensive management area, a residential area, a commercial entertainment area, a material production area, and an education and training area.

According to the strength of the energy sources, the small floating city only has an area of ​​tens of thousands of square meters, with no more than 2000 people.

A large floating city has an area of ​​more than a few hundred square kilometers and can accommodate millions of people.

The floating city in the swamp basin is neither big nor small, with a size of four to five square kilometers, and there should be 3 to [-] people living there.

Li Cha walked around the ruins of the floating city a few times, and decided to dig out the ruins of the floating city to see if he could find some precious magic materials and magic knowledge.

Because there are unknown dangers hidden inside the Floating Void City, Li Cha's actions are very careful. He decided to start searching from the residential areas, commercial and entertainment areas, and education and training areas.

These three areas are relatively less dangerous, and the excavation work should go smoothly from here.

Li Cha put the No. [-] Squadron with the strongest fighting power, the Warcraft Cavalry, on alert, and the rest of them slowly walked into the ruins of the floating city.

The soldiers in Harland's territory had just entered the floating city, and suddenly a powerful magical aura emanated from the inside of the floating city. Several magicians actually activated the teleportation array and left the ruins of the floating city.

Seeing this scene, Li Cha was taken aback. He never expected that there were still people hiding in the dark in the ruins of this floating city.

It's just that the people hiding in the floating city should not be strong enough to defeat the army in Harland's territory, so they decisively chose to teleport away.

In order to fear that the enemy would move reinforcements, Li Cha had to quickly destroy the teleportation array.

Richard didn't know that it was the legendary magician Elena of the Venus family who was hiding in the ruins of the floating city.

If Elena was intact, of course she wouldn't be afraid of the army in Harland's territory.

As a legendary magician, even if he can't fight thousands of regular troops head-on, he can withdraw from the battle at any time and take the initiative on the battlefield.

However, Elena was severely injured by the Duke of Brenner. Although she survived by relying on the book of the artifact contract, she could not use the power of magic to fight within three years. To restore the strength of the legendary mage, it would take 20 years to rest.

So after discovering that the troops from the territory of Harland had entered, Irina estimated the strength of both sides, and felt that with a few high-level magicians from the Venus family and more than a dozen middle-level and high-level knights, even if they occupied a favorable location, there would be a building built underground. With the help of the mage tower and the controlled lizardmen soldiers, it was difficult to defeat the two thousand elite soldiers in Harland's territory.

Although there was some reluctance in his heart, the Venus family suffered heavy losses when they gave up this secret base.

This hidden base has been operated by the Venus family for more than a thousand years.There are not only a large amount of materials, but also many precious materials. The most important thing is that there are many magic techniques of ancient wizards hidden in the ruins of the floating city, which have extremely high research value.After leaving this ruins, many subsequent researches cannot be carried out.

Unless the Venus family was reborn, overthrew the rule of the Grant family, and gained absolute authority, it would be possible to regain this hidden stronghold from the Harland family.

Otherwise, this site can only belong to the Harland family.

Even if this battle is won, the soldiers of the Harland family are repelled. After the secret base is exposed, the Harland family suffers a loss and will definitely report to the capital. When Nolan sends an army, the secret base will still not be able to defend. Live, it will also consume the lives of members of the Venus family.

Yi Lianna is a decisive person. Once she realized that she couldn't do anything, she immediately decided to preserve her vitality and left the floating city with the Venus family.

(End of this chapter)